Two days after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan suspended six Congress MPs for five days, the Lok Sabha continued to be in turmoil, with the Opposition not only accusing the Union government of obstructing debates on rural distress and mob killings but also applying a dual yardstick to BJP member Anurag Thakur and Opposition MPs for flouting rules.
Repeated adjournments
The House was adjourned repeatedly on Wednesday, with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj postponing her statement on 39 missing Indians in Mosul for some time.
The Congress demanded that Mr. Thakur’s act of filming the live proceedings of the Lok Sabha be referred to the Privileges Committee.
Dual yardstick
Alleging a dual yardstick, the party recalled that Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann had been suspended for an entire session for a similar offence but Mr. Thakur had been let off with a “simple warning”, tantamount to a rap on the knuckles, by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
“If someone has objections to my mobile phone, then I express my regret,” Mr. Thakur said after Ms. Mahajan warned members against the use of mobile phones inside the House. She asked Mr. Thakur to tender an apology to the House.
Opposition MPs said Mr. Mann too had expressed regrets but had been suspended for an entire session last year.
‘PM evading House’
Outside Parliament, Leader of the Congress Legislature Party, Mallikarjun Kharge said Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to speak at public rallies and “missed opportunities for meaningful debate” in Parliament.
Asked why the issues were moved under an adjournment motion and not any other non-voting rule as the government has been saying, he said, “Adjournment motion is one of the most important parliamentary tools to fix government accountability.”
